The Goose! photo courtesy Critical Mass via Miles Bowman

I have been thinking of making very large puppets for a while now, and throughout late winter/early spring of this year, my sister and I built one. Critical Mass (A local organization that is dedicated to bringing contemporary art experiences to Port Hope) commissioned us to build a full Canada Goose outfit for use at a variety of events throughout the year. The concept for the goose came courtesy of Jeff + Luke, a local design and branding team. I built the head and neck, my sister Alex (Alex Lang Photography) built the body and giant life jacket. It was a delight to work through the challenges that come with building a person sized goose puppet costume, namely: It can't be too top heavy; the person inside needs to be able to move fairly freely and dance about; it shouldn't be too complicated to get on, and it needs to be durable. We used papier mache for the head and various fabrics for the body, as well as a lot of black zip ties, a water hydration backpack, straps, foam mats and bamboo rods. We are very happy with how it turned out! To read more about the goose check out this article , and for many hilarious photos of the goose in its natural habitat, go to Critical Mass on Facebook.